


Sharper Than Knives

by Illyah



Series: Apparently Elle's Writing Stucky Now [10]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: AU, And found Coulson for help, Angst with a Happy Ending, AoS season 1, Bucky Barnes does not have amnesia, Bucky Barnes on the bus, Bucky and Grant do NOT get along, Bucky got out early, But he goes by Agent Stevens, Cap was sleeping for BoNY, Gen, He’s just undercover, He’s still in ice right now, for now, this is gonna be fun
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-05
Updated: 2019-12-05
Packaged: 2021-02-24 15:53:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21680503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Illyah/pseuds/Illyah
Summary: Fifteen years after helping The Winter Soldier escape Hydra and it’s brainwashing, Coulson has come back to call in a favor. Something inside SHIELD is rotten. He needs a HYDRA specialist, and he knows just where to find one.OR:“My Cat’s name is Dodger, Ward. Dollface is my gun.”
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, Leo Fitz/Jemma Simmons
Series: Apparently Elle's Writing Stucky Now [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1056533
Comments: 2
Kudos: 49





	Sharper Than Knives

**Author's Note:**

> This needs to be edited. It’s 4am and I’ve been writing this instead of sleeping. I’ll edit it in the morning.
> 
> There isn’t an update schedule currently, but I had in with this and would like to write more.
> 
> Let me know what you think!
> 
> Xoxo.

“Ah, shit” He sighed to himself as he heard the engines overhead. It’d been almost five years since anyone had been sent after him, and he’d been enjoying the peace and quiet. He wiped his hands on his pants as he stood up and grabbed one of the rifles he kept liberally stashed across his property, slung it over his shoulder and exited the barn.

He hoped this was going to be friendly visit, but somehow he doubted it, things never did seem to work out that way for Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes. Upon exiting the barn he found himself still unable to see his visitor, although they were clearly closer than they had been before, because he could hear them even more clearly.

He cocked the rifle, “show yourself, or I’m going to start shooting, and I don’t miss.” He told the air, and felt the servos in his shoulder whirl. Slowly the red Corvette started to materialize in front of his face, and he was pleased to note that his gun was pointed directly at the face of the driver.

The man behind the wheel just grinned at him. “Good to see you, Sarge, it’s been a while.”

Bucky was pleasantly surprised, he’d made a deal with SHIELD years ago—they’d leave him be until such time as he involved himselfin SHIELD affairs, which he was very aware he had done, but it’d been almost six months since the BoNY and no one had come for him. He smiled at the man in front of him—if he was being honest, Phil Coulson was probably the closet thing he’d had to a friend since the 1940s.

Phil gave him a brief smile before he face turned more serious. “I need to call in that favor.”

It started like this:

**Year: 1990**

**Location: Somewhere outside Novosibirsk**

**“Yes, Dr. Whitehall, we’ve been hearing rumors from our brothers about a problematic new SHIELD agent, he’s said to be incorruptible, and insufferably committed to doing what’s right.”**

**He knew the agents were only discussing this in front of him because they didn’t believe he was capable of understanding anything aside from orders, they’d stopped freezing him during short mission gaps because with the slowly decline of the USSR he was being called on much more frequently. He made sure he didn’t seem too interested because that would surely make them stop talking and he wanted to know as much as he could about anyone these monsters thought could hurt them.**

**“Maybe we shouldn’t discuss this in front of the asset.” One told the other.**

**The second agent crossed the room and slapped him hard across the face, he allowed it, because he couldn’t let them know he was aware, it was better if they didn’t know, it was always better if they didn’t know.**

**“I don’t worry, he’s not even human.” He shrugged an turned back to the screen in front of him.**

**He was awake the longest that time, almost three whole years, not that you’d ever know it but looking at him, and in that time, he spent years listening to his handlers bemoan Philip Coulson for his black and white view of the world.**

**Like all empires, eventually the sun set on the USSR and the heads of Hydra were cut off or moved on, and no one gave a thought to the cryogenic-pod in the out-of-use bunker outside Novosibirsk. Another relic of a by gone age.**

**It ended like this:**

**Year: 1997**

**Location: Somewhere outside Novosibirsk**

**Soggy. That was the first thing the Winter Soldier felt upon awakening. Which was weird, usually he woke up clean and dry on a table ready for orders, but this time, he was distinctly soggy.**

**He realized immediately that something was off, there were no lights on and he couldn’t pick up any sounds with his enhanced hearing. Even if there were people there, they were most likely a skeleton crew, and he was pretty sure he could take whoever was there, he knew there was deep programming within him, but if the growth of his hair was any indication, he’d been asleep for years and therefore hadn’t been through the chair, which meant he was going to be assaulted with memories within the next three hours, give or take, and he needed to get the fuck out of there as fast as he possibly could.**

**He spent a few minutes gathering things from around the bunker, thousands of dollars in cash, clothes, food, weapons, anything he would need to get as far away from here as possible. He had no idea what year it was, but he was a master spy, he could adapt.**

**Four hours later he found himself holed up in a cabin a three hour hike from where the base was. He hadn’t run into anyone on his way out and the amount of dust made him think it’d been empty for years and the generator had finally run dry. All the better for him, it mean he actually stood a chance at getting out once and for all. He lit the fire and settled back, waiting for the memories to come rushing in. Several hours later he had a basic grasp on his identity, his skills, and his background, he let himself sleep for the night before waking up the next morning to plan.**

**He decided his plan in order of importance. He needed to get back to America, that was the first, most important thing. Then he needed to find this Agent Coulson and hope against all odds, that he still worked at SHIELD, and would be willing to help him.**

**He flew back to New York under the name Boris Ivanov, since James Buchanan Barnes was dead, and the Winter Soldier didn’t exist. He discovered shortly after his arrival that Coulson had been transferred to DC recently, and really, these people were considered excellent in their field? They may as well have given him the man’s home address with all the information he gathered simply by listening to them for less than an hour.**

**Bucky picked up the man’s trail one night outside SHIELD HQ in DC, and he’d give the man credit, he gave him a fair distance before he turned around.**

**“Who are you and why are you following me?” He demanded, and it’d been a long time since anyone had asked Bucky a question that he’d almost forgotten how to talk to people.**

**“Are you Agent Phil Coulson, of SHIELD?” He deflected.**

**“I am, and you are?”**

**Bucky lowered his hood and met the man’s eyes. “My name is James Buchanan Barnes, and I need your help.”**

Present Day

“Whatever you need, Phil, you know that.”

“That’s a dangerous offer to make, Barnes.”

“If you were a different man, it would be. What do you need?” Bucky asked, because it was the truth, he would do whatever Phil needed him to because he owed everything to Phil.

“Since the BoNY I’ve been putting together a team of specialists, all highly skilled in their fields. I’ve got one spot left that I think you’d fit nicely into, I know you said you weren’t interested in this life, but obviously the game has changed, I know you engaged in New York, because like the rest of us—you couldn’t help yourself, so now I’m offering you a place on my team. I think we can do a lot of good, and save a lot of people.”

“Alright, what’s the off the books reason? I know you, Phil. You wouldn’t have come out here for just a spot on a team.”

“We think SHIELD is infested with HYDRA.” Phil told him bluntly and he sucked in a shocked breath and tried to stop the watery feeling in his eyes, he hadn’t cried while conscious for over seventy years and he wasn’t going to start now over the infiltration of something that wasn’t his to begin with.“I need a HYDRA specialist. Unofficially, of course. Officially, you’re my covert operations specialist.”

“I need five minutes. I’m bringing my cat, and my guns.” Bucky tells him, because like hell he’ll be using SHIELD weapons.

Bucky returned to the car exactly five minutes later holo-sleeve over his left arm and a couple of his farm hands lugging things along behind them while Bucky walked in front holding a cat carrier in one hand and a large, plastic gun case in the other.

He loaded his things into Lola’s backseat, and slid in beside Coulson, “Bucky Barnes is dead.” He told him. ”I can account for every single picture of Bucky Barnes in the world. So, I need him to stay that way. He doesn’t belong here without him.”

Coulson eyed him sadly and produced a badge “Welcome to SHIELD, Agent Vanya Stevens.”

Agent Vanya Stevens had been running solo covert ops in Eastern Europe for the last decade according to the file Coulson handed him, and memorized it quickly and destroyed it in the burn box on the floor.

He couldn’t help the smile as the car took off into the air. This felt right in a way that nothing had since 1945.

“So tell me about this team.” Bucky asked.

“Melinda May, long time SHIELD agent, I’ve known her for years, she’s exceptional, and I trust her with my life. Grant Ward, survival specialist and former protege of John Garrett, Doctors Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons, the two youngest graduates of SHIELD academy, and our consultant, Skye. She’s a brilliant hacker in desperate need of guidance.”

As they pulled the car into the cargo ramp of the bus, currently parked at the HUB, he felt the need to remind Coulson of something, “You know I haven’t been on a team for over 70 years, right?”

“Don’t worry Sarge,” he promised, “I’m sure it’s just like riding a bike.”

It was not like riding a bike.

The initial introductions went well, over all.

“Everyone,” Coulson called his agents to attention, “this is the last member of our team, our covert ops specialist, Vanya Stevens. Agent Stevens has spent the last decade running solo covert ops in Eastern Europe and we’re lucky he’s agreed to join our exam.” Coulson gestured around the table and introduced everyone, and Bucky excused himself to go get settled in his bunk.

Thanks to Coulson, Bucky was the foremost purveyor or information about himself, he had all the hard copies of his SHIELD, Army, and HYDRA files, the only hard copies, and he slipped them into the hidden compartment Coulson had told him about under the floor, secured it with the penta-key and slipped the key back inside the palm of his metal hand before grabbing his headphones and taking off for a run.

He liked running—especially with headphones, it made him feel like everyone else, and allowed him to pretend that he was constantly alert and didn’t have super hearing that definitely over-rode whatever noise canceling effects his paranoia didn’t.

Just like every other time he’d found himself running in DC, he ended up in Arlington National Cemetery, and, as usual found himself in front of Steve’s statue and the Howling Commandos area, he liked to come here and talk to Steve, even though their statues looked nothing like them—not really, he liked to talk to something Steve-sized.

After telling Steve what he was doing and promising to be back soon, he returned to the bus just in time to hear the end of a conversation between Ward and May.

“I’m just saying, I don’t know what Coulson sees in him, he showed up wearing a Nirvana hoodie and skinny jeans, May...he has a cat named Dollface!”

Something about Ward got his hackles up in a way they hadn’t been since 1930s Brooklyn, and he grabbed a bottle of water and sauntered by on the way to his bunk, stopping only to address Ward.

“My Cat’s name is Dodger, Ward. Dollface is my gun.”


End file.
